In today’s society of lost souls and young people lacking direction, needing direction and longing for social connections, is why football is probably more important than ever. Yes, yes I understand, that there are risks with football, let’s work past that and focus on the overwhelming positives and how they impact society.

#1 Football teaches not just teamwork, but the values of each individuals’ role on a team. This is arguably its greatest value, as people long to belong to something that serves a greater good or that isn’t connected to the internet, people need social interaction and a reliance on others for their success. Football does this to the enth degree. Each person on the team has a specific role and each unit or team is only as good as the weakest person in that group. If someone fails in their task and doesn’t value their role the rest of the team is lost. Yes other sports have team elements, but football is the only one where theoretically you can utilize 35–40 individuals or more in one game who all contribute. No other sport does this. The ramification for society is people learning how to work together, pull together not at each other, and how to understand and get along with each other. This is critical for the success of football and is optimal when people of all different backgrounds come together for a common cause.

#2 The physical demands are unmatched. No longer are people required to be drafted into the army or join the armed forces. This is a good thing, but where can people and young men get the discipline and physical demands that teach the skills of armed forces. The only close replica is football. Football requires the ability to go hard every play, get knocked down and keep on going. In life you will get hit real hard and football teaches you how to react to it and improve. In today’s society with everyone focusing on a cumbaya world, we do not get the physical demands required in knocking down, getting knocked down and having to overcome adversity. Football teaches you that and how to get through it.

#3 Football teaches you to be both the leader and the follower. On a football team there are many instances where someone must lead. They must lead their teammates, help them, work with them. There are also many times where they must follow others and follow coaches. The ying and the yang of being both a leader and a follower help you to understand human nature. It helps you to understand what each person and you need to succeed and formulate a task based plan to get it done. In society today more than ever we must learn to know when it’s time to take a stand and when its time to shut up and follow another. This is a key distinguishing feature that football teaches you. You learn when it’s your time to lead and you learn when its your time to listen and follow. We have too many instances in society of people not having a feel for their place in the world and lacking the instincts to make great decisions. Being both a leader and follower will help you with that.

#4 Decision making and critical decision making skills. Football teaches you to make split second decisions and daily consistent decisions that will either hurt or help you on each and every task you attempt to complete. You must execute the plan and the ability to make great decisions are critical. Football teaches this skill and as the athlete becomes better at it, they learn to make better decisions for themselves and their lives. The on the field practices makes for off the field genius. Learning to execute a plan, make a decision and live with it is critical for life success and is learned in football.

These are four of many great things that football can contribute to an athletes’ life that will have dividends for many many years. In a world that is dominated by low interaction, the internet and social media, and gaming, our young people need more activities and sports that place rigorous demands on them on a consistent basis and football does just that. Embrace the great things in football and you will see societal benefits for generations to come.

by David Schuman twitter — David Schuman and on social media on instagram @daveschuman or nuc_football

After over 17 years in the high school football space as a coach and over 12 years helping athletes with NUC Sports, I have come to a very sad conclusion. Parents and athletes have no clue what they are doing in the recruiting process, have no idea where to get the information needed, have no understanding of the NCAA rules, and further have no inclination to give the effort necessary to get themselves in a better situation. Parents and athletes have been waiting for a handout from their coaches, from college coaches and from associates surrounding college sports. They all think that magically things will just happen. My answer is please please first learn the rules of recruiting and the NCAA. This is the first step. I love working with athletes but have grown increasingly tired of the same exact questions, with no knowledge of anything to do with recruiting. Here are some of the questions I get.

#1 Will there be scouts at my son’s event? No there will not be scouts because outside of April 15- May 30th and specifically only for Juniors, D1 coaches cannot watch your athlete participate in an event under the NCAA rules. They cannot see a combine period and cannot watch you participate unless they are watching a scholastic based event. For example, they can come to your track meet in the spring. They can watch you work out which counts as a athletic evaluation. They are allowed 1 in the spring and 1 academic evaluation. At college camps on their campus obviously they can evaluate you. Treat showcase events as information and video based evaluation tools that act as 1. publicity 2. Information from evaluators from the event that get shared with college coaches and 3. An opportunity to compete against top athletes. Now with the internet and video at NUC sports we send direct links and information to all the college coaches that serves as a filtering in and filtering out process of top athletes. At the D3 level coaches can go and evaluate whenever they want, and on campus or off, but the financial resources of D3 programs limit their travel.

#2 How do i get in contact with college coaches? This is beyond mind boggling to me, but here is the answer! Call them, Email them, go to campus, and DM them on Instagram and Twitter. Reaching out with your information, video and transcript is critical. Make a video and send it, introduce them to you! Do something that makes you stand out but by all means you must reach out to them. The NCAA rules prohibit college coaches from reaching out to underclassmen other than Juniors in the spring on a limited basis. So you must get your name out there. Events are great for publicity and evaluation and reach out directly to the coaches is necessary! The Recruiting Calendar can be found here http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/resources/recruiting-calendars

#3 Why isn’t my son being recruited? Well see answer #2 if you haven’t reached out. If you have an he is still isn’t then choose new schools to reach out to. It is ridiculous to reach out to the same schools over and over again and they have no interest. Reach out to new schools. If those schools show no interest then reach out to a lower level. Know your son’s athleticism, speed and size are direct factors in recruiting. Stop fooling yourself to think you are going to get a D1 scholarship when you are 5’6 and run a 4.8 40…it ain’t happening. I had a coach get mad at me because I told his athlete to reach out to D3 schools because his athlete was 5’9 205 and wanted to be a D1 lineman. In the history of mankind there has never been a D1 lineman at 5’9 205. Choose the right level. Finally, If you have bad grades and bad SAT/ACT scores you won’t qualify, so pick your grades up and improve your scores or you will not qualify to get recruited.

NCAA Sliding Scale, You can Google It and Find the Info

#4. How can you help me get recruited? This one particularly irks me….How can i help any athlete without knowing more about them. We need to as athletes and parents learn about what makes our athlete unique, reach out to someone like myself who can help them, in a way that will want to make me want to help them. There is no right to play in college, there is no right to get help and its not FREE. Over the dozen years i have been helping athletes with providing information to college coaches for FREE, i have never been able to provide direct 1 to 1 help unless the athlete A. Played for me or B. I knew them. There is a C. If you are a good enough athlete, good enough student, and are recruitable and are willing to pay for my time or another experts time you can get direct help. Don’t expect something for nothing. In most cases, someone like myself, just like a college coach will want to know a lot more than just your film, because in 99 percent of the cases the athletes film does not clearly standout. My advice is to learn as much as you can, figure out where your abilities are, attend events and then reach out for assistance.

#5. My coach sucks or doesn’t help me in recruiting can you help me? My short answer on this is NO. If you think your coach sucks and he doesnt help you then you are probably a headache that no college coach wants. Develop a relationship with your high school so he wants to help you. If you can’t do that in 90% of the cases playing in college may not be in the cards for you. So many parents contact me complaining about there coach that it is overwhelming and ridiculous. Support your coach and he will support you. If you jump around from school to school and think every coach sucks, then more than likely you and your family will be disgruntled parents at the college level and college coaches just aren’t willing to deal with that. They are getting rid of kids in college that run 4.4 in the 40 who are headaches so they certainly aren’t interested in a borderline athlete who runs a 4.9 in the 40. My advice is develop a relationship with your coach, work harder than anyone on the field, play better than anyone on the field, be a great teammate, be a great person and be a great student, and chances are you will have a great high school experience, your coach will be willing to help you and a college coach will be willing to recruit you.

#6.Does the school and how good they are going to help me in recruiting? The reality is how good you play and what kind of student you are helps you in the process, not what kind of team you are on. If you are great and you reach out to schools you will have a great chance on being recruited. If you are average it does not matter where you go. An excellent team can provide you with some additional exposure but it can also hurt you if you are the 5th best player on a great team. So my advice is be the very best player on the field and it won’t matter what school you play at. If you combine that with reaching out like i spoke about in point #1 you will get recruited.

I just like to point out the truths. As always you can reach me on twitter at David Schuman or on instagram at NUC_football or DaveSchuman. Send me a DM, I will respond.

The Importance of Reaching Out In Football Recruiting

I wanted to give athletes the understanding of how important it is to reach out to college in recruiting to get their name out there. In today’s social media environment, which so much information, so many hudl links and so much noise, it is important to know how to navigate. Here are five things you can do to help yourself right now!

#1 Get a great highlight tape that is focused on your first 10 clips being out of this world fantastic. Take that tape and obviously have in on hudl but also post to youtube and vimeo to build your presence

#2 Email that link with all of your vitally important info like height, size, weight, a little info about you, some stats, a picture and some grade/sat info

#3 Follow up the next day and call the coach at the colleges you are interested in. Pick 25 and call them and talk with position coach or recruiting coordinator

#4 Make a spreadsheet and list every school you are interested in *must be at least 100, and then email all of them and then get a phone call plan to follow up

#5 Make list of 5 college camps you must go to in the summer and a list of 5 combines/showcases/7v7 you must go to in the spring. These help build your brand in the spring.

How To Master The 40 Yard Dash

Coach Schuman Teaching Mastering the 40 yard dash

Mastering the 40 yard dash is one of the most important things any football player can do to improve their stock in recruiting or with the NFL. There are certain fundamental things that can be done to improve. I have outlined them in the video above. Here are some of the most important elements of the 40 yards dash and what can be done to improve.

#1. You must master the start-this is critical and the most important part of the 40 yard dash, everything else comes from the start. Important points to remember. Your front foot should be 12–24 inches behind the starting line, too far away you wont have enough drive, too close and you wont get enough power. You must have your back foot even to 6 inches behind even on your front foot. You must think of your start as a push-punch situation. Your front foot pushes off and your back foot punches through. This is critical. Your takeoff is similar to an airplane you are driving out at an angle that will propel you 30 to 35 degree rise throughout your 40.

Odell Beckham’s 40 yard Dash at NFL Combine-Fantastic Start

The second phase is your drive phase which is 10 yards to 30 yards- this phase you must continue to drive, relax your face and furiously drive your arms as your body slowly rises. It is critical not to pop up in the drive phase as this will severely affect your 40 yard dash time in the last 10 yards.

Patrick Peterson’s 4.3 at NFL Combine, you will see an amazing drive phase as he stays down and driving from 10 yards to 30

Finishing Phase must be relaxed and driving- you have generated your speed from the first 30 and now your body should be finishing its rise as you get to 30–35 yards and you are relaxing and letting the speed and fast fluid arm drive carry you through the line.

As always any questions you can contact me at www.nucsports.comdave@nucsports.com on twitter David Schuman or at facebook.com/nucsports on snapchat @nucsports1 or on instagram @nuc_football

Why Going Over And Above In Everything You Do Is So Important!

I was thinking today, so vividly how in our culture there is a great divide and it is not an educational divide (although pundits will tell you there is) or a technology divide (although many think there is and there may be), it is a divide of WILLINGNESS!

The willingness to to everything they can to be great at what they do and strive to be the best at it. I have been a business owner for 15 years, a football and track coach for 16 years, and someone who has worked with close to a half a million athletes in my lifetime as an athlete myself, through my business and as a coach and i have notice a great divide.

The divide between the people who are willing to go over and above to be successful and the overwhelming majority who struggle to understand the concept. The concept that at each task you must be willing to be exceptional. Most are willing to work to the status quo. This can apply to life, your business, sports or anything, but one thing is true, the ones that are willing to go over and above will have the advantage.

Here are examples of over and above and here are the opposite example.

Over and Above- I was asked if I could help someone find out the pro day dates of a particular school. #1 I have no obligation to do it, #2 it takes time out of my day. I did it and got the information to the person, because I value the relationship and know that relationships are reciprocal.

Not Over and Above- I am in a bind looking for a facility for an event and contacted a facility who did not have availability and could not turn it around fast enough. #1 They are not obliged to help #2 It is not there job to help. They decided not to help or refer me to anyone and in turn lost the opportunity for me to bring business to them in the future. One person in this case cost a business future business by not figuring out a way to add value.

Over and Above- I ask an employee to help me get an event running that they are not in charge of. That employee: #1 It is not his job to do #2 He is not compensated for it. Employee helps with event that he is not responsible for and takes on tasks that I had not thought of and executes them. He also figures out a way to get more people involved and asks for nothing. This person gets the value of opportunity begets opportunity. He understands by doing more he creates a positive atmosphere and more financial opportunity in the future and probably better tasks that he enjoys.

Not Over and Above- I ask an employee to make sure he spends extra time to have his assistants understand their tasks on an event that had some changes and make sure the customers no where they are supposed to be. #1 he believe he already did it #2 he feels it is someone else’s job. This employee chose to not do it, left promptly at the imaginary whistle of 5:30pm and went on with his life. The next day, disaster struck and people were at the wrong site, event coaches were confused and event got off to rocky start. Employee valued his time significantly and personal ego over reassurance and success. That employee lost his job and instead of going over and above to make sure his group was successful he blamed subordinates and he was accountable for their success or lack of it. This is a prime example of putting personal thoughts over willingness and care.

These two simple examples show how in just our jobs we can go over and above and succeed. Often we mistake going over and above for the fear of being taken advantage of. This is the biggest mistake someone can make. Who cares if someone has an ill motive, when you go over and above on everything you do, you get paid back 10x because other people are always watching.

Today in society we have a selfie culture a I want what I want now culture, and a i don’t like what your doing so I will protest you culture. What we need is a can do, willingness to do, how can i help you do it better, and how can i help you succeed culture. You will get everything you want when you do more than is necessary on everything you do. If you can stay late to get the job done do it. If you need to run one more spring to help the team win then do it. If you have to grab coffee on your way for someone else because you know they would like it then do it!

Success is born out of a willingness to do not just what is necessary but to do what is not necessary or ordinary.

Going over and above and the willingness to make a difference will benefit you self being, you mind, your business, and your sport. Your career will prosper and you will be regarding as someone who always gets the job done.

Follow me on here David Schuman, share with your friends and to learn more i can be reached on facebook @AskCoachSchu and or email me dave@nucsports.com

Why You Must Always Compete In Sports and The Workplace

I have had the unique opportunity to have been a star athlete and division 1 football player , a football coach, and a entrepreneur for the better part of my adult life. It has given me a unique perspective on athletics, business and the workplace. I have been able to learn some very important things but most importantly that you must continue to have drive and always compete.

You may ask what do I mean by that? Gee that is exhausting ? Or once I get do a place don’t my experience and loyalty matter? The answer is I’m today’s economy and sports and business the only thing that matters is how your production is. I have learned over the years that taking care of people because you like them never works. Helping others getting a leg up and opportunity because you like them or respect them does work but they must always continue to value that with gratitude through competing and hard work.

I am always amazed at how, employees or people you work with are always asking for respect at a job when what they should be asking is how can I do more how can I bring in more revenue and how can I help the company grow. Every athlete , employee and competitor must be thinking about growing the bottom line. In sports that means team unity and performance to produce wins and in a company it means either reducing expenses or increasing growth in sales.

Increasing growth in sales is always the optimal goal cause only through growth does more hiring happen, more sales happens and more revenue in he company happen. When you grow a companies bottom line and top line you help them win. When they win you win. This is why I have across the board implemented for anyone that works for me a commission opportunity. I am not doing it because we desperately need the extra sales but do it as a test to see who really cares about the success of the company. The ones who really care want to make it grow. The ones who want to collect a check for their time invested will not. That test gives an owner valuable insight into the people involved in his company. I learn right away who wants long term success or who just wants their personal gain. See sales is the lifeblood of a company just like touchdowns are the lifeblood to create wins for a football team. You can have a business without revenue and you can’t have a winning team without scoring points.

Here’s how you run the program

You pay employees or contractors for their normal job a base amount.

You create a higher than normal commission structure and track it through a code or system

You developing marketing materials for that person

You give them expectations and how to complete what you need to generate revenue

You watch how they react and how well they do

Once you complete the test you will know what kind of employees you have on your hand and you can develop their career from there.

If the employees are not willing to compete to be successful you will have an employee who will not stay with you in rough times and who will not be a top performer but will always be a mediocre to good performer.

The same goes for athletics. As a coach you can implement it by tracking goals and rewards that lead to points on your team. In football that is easy like tracking.

Yards per carry

Completion percentage

Touchdown to interception ratio

Pancake blocks per game

Points inside the 10 yard line

Turnover points conversion

Red zone scoring percentage

And so on. These give you real measuring tools that individuals and team members can gravitate towards and win.

I love when people in corporate ask me how work is or what is work like. Like its some finite object. Work to me is my life project and its ongoing. it make me laugh. Its not about what you own or what you drive or where you work or what business you do. Its the way you embrace each day not as a burden or obligation or something you think you need to do but a challenge and opportunity that you can embrace.

Its not how many kids or whose your mate but how you live in the moment and attack the future and handle each day as your life’s project. Its what you put on the life’s film from your perspective and your morality and values and no one else’s. Its how you never get caught up in fear and loss but what you learned and gained before and after the fear and loss. Its how you define yourself and now how others define you and remember that we all perish so cherish as much as you can and forget nonsense that just doesn’t matter because in the end it’s a choice between doing what matters or what doesn’t matter.

The canvas you paint is yours and you include everything you want on that canvas or don’t want so never include something you don’t want because your just wasting your space on your canvas.

If I choose to be frustrated or mad or care or don’t care I figure it out. I would love if my son answers the question of what does your father do for a living and he answered “he lives life attacks it and loves it. That’s what he does for living and he is the most successful person in the world at it. “

How Parents and Recruiting Has Changed Radically Since I Started NUC Sports

I wanted to write this because i have found it interesting since starting NUC Sports in 2005 how the miseducation of the recruiting process and the lack of realistic expectations of parents have changed the landscape in how everyone handles recruiting.

IN THE BEGINNING

NUC Athletes at the Top Prospect Camp at OU. Leon Mcquay USC, Desmond Jackson Texas, Bronson Irwin oklahoma, Greyson Lambert Georgia, and many other stars in this picture

In 2005 when we started NUC sports which was originally National Underclassmen Combine, with one event in New Jersey, the idea was to give underclassmen the opportunity to test and get their information into college coaches hands. At that time only us and Nike was really doing it and when the information got to the colleges. They weren’t bombarded by so much other nonsense that they were able to read it. Parents at that time were looking for way to get their son an opportunity and most were willing to learn as to what they had to do get that opportunity. Athletes like Tyrod Taylor, Joe Haden, Chazz Cervino, Carlo Calabrese and many other participated in that camp and thrived.

EXPANSION

As we expanded and grew we were lucky in that only a few competitors grew with us and as we became successful, we partnered with groups like NCSA and Rivals and others that also created that opportunity. Through 2012, I saw not just event growth but also parents learning about the process. Yes, some were unrealistic but most were eager to learn. Then something radically changed in 2012 into 2013 that changed that understanding forever.

7v7 GROWTH COINCIDING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA GROWTH THE RISE OF THE EVENTS

7v7 tourney from adidas

THE 7v7 FACTOR

As we continued to grow in 2014, 7v7 was taking off, we ran 7v7 events, heck I even had my own club, but i saw something that wasn’t true about 7v7 that bothered me. I have been a football coach since 2001 and 7v7 was always a part of our high school summer and big part of improving and even getting noticed when we went onto college campuses, but….. 7v7 in the club event standpoint took off and there are ZERO college coaches at these events and there are ZERO evaluations being done.

Ok, i get it they claim to video some of them and maybe a few do, but I have never seen a camera on my team and I have been going for years, soooooo….. This creates parents THINKING there son is getting looked at and nothing is happening. They go to FREE camps with THOUSANDS of athletes and only the known athletes get looked at. THIS IS A PROBLEM! I think camps, combines and 7v7 are great to develop the athlete and help them learn to compete. It’s not the 7v7’s that are the problem but the messaging from it.

STARS AND OFFERS

The problem is the parents THINK they are gonna get looked at from that! Absolutely not! A good friend of mine has a so that is a 20 offer athlete and he would always ask me, when will he get stars, what does he have to do to get stars and I would tell him….ONCE HE HAS OFFERS, HE WILL HAVE STARS.

Rivals, 247 sports and others are great sites, but they are REPORTING THE NEWS, not creating news. When an athletes gets offered then they really get interested. Parents think it is the other way around, it is not.

TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE

Recruiting services that over promise that an athlete will get recruited event though the colleges just hit delete or block their server. You must have someone physically reaching out for the athlete and not from a server. The understanding of what it takes to get recruited in todays era of social media creates more misunderstanding than ever. Athletes see other athletes on twitter getting offers and thinks that should be them.

The number of athletes competing to get recruited is higher than ever but the number of SCHOLARSHIP AVAILABLE are the same or even less than in the past. This is important to understand in all of FBS there is 85 scholarships available per team. There are 128 Teams in FBS and 124 Teams in FCS. FCS has 63 scholarships available per team and more than 1/3 of those teams dont offer the full amount.

So what does that mean?? that means that since there are 1,085,772 football players in high school in 14,000 high schools and there are only 2720 FBS schools, the likelihood of going to FBS is is almost exactly 1% and the likelihood of going FCS or FBS is somewhere between 1.5% and 1.7% on a scholarship depending on the number of FCS schools offering full scholarships. In each grade in high school there is approximately 271,443 football players…..So what does this all mean.

MORE PARENTS THAN EVER THINK THERE ATHLETES IS GETTING A SCHOLARSHIP AND LESS OFFERS OR THE SAME NUMBER ARE GOING OUT

This equals a problem, on social media athletes think bombarding the college head coach with links is the answer and parents think that their high school coach is to blame or they went to the wrong event or even worse, THE CAMP HAD THEIR FAVORITES. This is all nonsense, when the best player is out there people notice him.

When colleges and evaluators are looking at athletes, they are looking for SUPERIOR SKILLS, POTENTIAL, UPSIDE, HEIGHT, SPEED, FREAK ATHLETICISM. I am forever inundated with parents claiming there son had a great day or he caught every ball or he worked the hardest, when the truth is in order for your son to get out there he must truly be the BEST!

College coaches want to win, high school coaches want to win and recruiting evaluators want to find the best. Everyone gets success from that, so there is no such thing as favoritism, there is GOOD and NOT AS GOOD or EXCEPTIONAL and NOT EXCEPTIONAL.

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE

Everyone that has a camp is doing it for a reason, FREE IS NEVER FREE. Nike does it for their brand to sell more gear and shoes, Under Armour the same, Rivals.com to sell more memberships and get more athletes names to sell memberships to, FBU charges literally for the training, NUC we charge for the competition and the stats so colleges get them FREE, and others have there reasons, but know one thing.

If Under Armour doesn’t have their camp for FREE then then don’t sell more shoes, and if Rivals doesn’t get your info they cant sell you a membership, so on and so on, so make sure you go for the reasons that can help you in your process, not just for the gear. Free gear is nice but at the end the day you become a lead to sell the shoes down the road for $150.00 and the Christmas T-shirt for $40.00, so utilize the process to help you succeed in getting better.

PARENTS ARE BEING FOOLED BY OTHER PARENTS

The parents that tell other parents to go to event because their son is going is foolish and the parent who knows the athletes final objective is the genius. So many parents have no idea what they are doing, don’t do any research and expect radical results without investing in the process.

How can your son get his name out there by going to only one event and then giving up. How can your son go to one college camp and think he will get recruited. This is not magic, this is a process. You and your son must be diligent and forward moving all the time. You cant get caught up in disappointment and ego, but focus on what is the future and next steps to create that opportunity.

THEN HOW CAN THEY GET THERE NAME OUT THERE

First off athletes should be going to camps, combines, 7v7 and such to not just get evaluated but to get better, know where they stand and find out where they have to go. The athletes that take that approach always get better and the parents that understand that do not lose their mind, when their son doesn’t get award or even paid attention to. Just go out and compete, if know one talks to you, then that tells you something!! YOU MUST GET BETTER!! If you don’t get recognized then you MUST GET BETTER!! The faster that athletes understand that and the faster that parents do the better off their son is.

I love to tell this anecdotal story. I was 6’1, 218 pounds in high school and was the State Small School Indoor High Hurdle Champ, I ran 14.4 in the high hurdles, ran an 11.0 100 meters, and ran 54.7 in the 400 IH and a 21 foot long jumper. As football player I had excellent statistics and was a RB and Safety in high school. I could catch, run, block, heck even throw, play defense and was fast as hell and I went on scholarship to UCONN which was D1aa or FCS not FBS. Next time your athlete believe he is D1, find out does he have the SPEED and SIZE to match, their is the rare Ryan Switzer (who was an NUC alum as well) who was undersized, but they always are beyond exceptionally quick or fast when they are undersized. So….

Keep improving, keep getting better, keep reaching out to schools and get real feedback to the level you may belong at and take advantage of the opportunity to get better. Parents, let your son compete, let him get better, and don’t worry about the nonsense of what someone has verse what you have but find out what can be done to get your son better, find out where he can play in college and for goodness sake, just go out and compete, get better, train and repeat that cycle over and over again, and you will get where you want to go!

The Nonsense of High School Stars Rating System

Star Rating System For Football

I get this question more than any other question. “How does my son get star ratings, and does your camp help us get stars.” I want to completely dispel this non sense myth. You do not get stars from appearing at a camp, getting a high five from a coach at a camp or from event being a standout at a camp. With very few exceptions, you get stars one very simple and direct way. “BY GETTING COLLEGE D1 SCHOLARSHIP OFFERS!!”

Mind Blown!

I hope this doesn’t blow your mind, but this is the 100% truth. After 12 years of running camps, working all of the recruiting services and all of the scouting companies, online or off, I can tell you that this is the fact!

I implore parents to stop worrying about this 100% percent meaningless system and refocus your efforts on performing well at camps, on the field, putting together great film, visiting college, and meeting with coaches, to get the all important scholarship offer. All of your time doing anything else is a complete waste of time. Here’s an example of why!

I am friends with and had a young man, a tight end from a top program in New Jersey that is now 6’5, 245. I would tell his father when he played for my 7v7 program and came to our events, that when the offers come, so does the stars. It took some time but once he had a great spring, did well at a few programs, and had a great season on the field, he started to gain exposure. As he gained that exposure he never gained any stars.

I told his father when the offers come the stars will come. So he persisted, reached out to coaches in college, reached out programs on twitter, sent his film to colleges and sent the updates. Eventually 1 by 1 programs began to offer his son, but yet he had no stars. As he accumulated 5 offers, then 8 offers, then 15 offers, then 20 offers and finally the “RATING EXPERTS” slapped a 3 star rating on him and one or two gave him 4 stars!! Meanwhile, it took 20 offers for them to even take notice because the COLLEGES take notice first and then the stars come.

Get the exposure

This shows you how meaningless the system is and how irrelevant it is to getting recruited, to getting offers and to getting stars. Athletes will get the stars when he gets the offers. So get him to camps, get his film out there, contact coaches, meet with coaches and work the exposure side of the system to build his name, get his offers and then the stars will come.

Little known fact both Rivals, Scout and 247sports always give at least 2 stars to any athlete that has a bonafide offer from a D1 school. So when there final ratings come out if they didn’t know who you were before, you will magically have at least 2 stars.

Thats how Johnny Manziel and Marcus Mariota (Heisman Trophy Winners) only had 3 stars, and the number of offers and media exposure could dictate the knowledge of their offers, meanwhile the college coaches know he is the best already. You should always ask yourself, who will know more about football. A guy who played the game and coaches in college or some writer who sits a home in his underwear writing information that he must gather. Who has more intel? The college coaches and recruiting departments of a 50 million dollar BCS budget or the local writer getting paid 10k?

Don’t be fooled by the nonsense in chasing stars. Chase the scholarship, chase exposure and chase opportunity. If you get the offers the stars will come.

About NUC Sports

NUC is the longest running underclassmen event and it’s the most respected high school combine and football camp in the country. If you’re serious about taking your game to the next level, playing college football or getting early exposure to college recruiters then attend an NUC Recruiting Event.